Rockaway Film Festival #5

September 17–25th, 2022

Arverne Cinema

This year marks the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, a storm that left an indelible imprint on the Rockaway landscape. From the destruction came a rebirth of place and reformation of community that led to the making of this festival. In honor of this occasion, our program begins and ends with stories set during ocean-town floods, and contains a sequence of films with a deep current of water. We submerge into its vast expanses and scattered light, and invite you to join.

Get Shell Pass
The shell pass provides access to all screenings, live music performances, after parties, and DJ sets.

LOOPING INSTALLATIONS

SOLA SELECTS by Oluwanisola Olosunde.

A commissioned moving archive by the photographer, urban planner, and longtime Rockaway resident. Playing all week inside Rockaway Brewing Co.

EMERGENCE by The Institute of Queer Ecology (IQECO).

A CGI rendering of a gynandromorphic swallowtail butterfly—which simultaneously exhibits male and female patterning—emerging from its cocoon for the first time. Playing all week in the Arverne Cinema window.

Saturday
,
Sep 17
6:30 pm
Free
PONYO
by Hayao Miyazaki. 2008. 101 min. Preceded by SECRET GOLDFISH by Bi Gan. 2016. 1 min. Live music performance by Laraaji.
Saturday
,
Sep 17
9:00 pm
Free
STORYTIME
A series of shadow puppet tales; digital, but no less made by hand. A collection of hand drawn narrative shorts to warm your palms. Guest programmed by Ted Wiggin with a live shadow puppet performance by Olivia Vaughn Hern.
Sunday
,
Sep 18
6:30 pm
Free
LIQUID LIMITS
From the cosmos to the beach, swimming pools to tidal marshes, above and below the waterline, this bicoastal program plunges deep into this marine interzone through films and videos that adapt our eyes and ears to new aquatic environments. Guest programmed by Leo Goldsmith with a sunset live music performance by C. Lavender.
Sunday
,
Sep 18
9:00 pm
Free
GEOGRAPHIES OF SOLITUDE
by Jacquelyn Mills. 2022. 103 min. Preceded by IN THE CONSERVATORY by Caryn Cline. 2010. 5 min.
Monday
,
Sep 19
6:30 pm
Free
MORNING OF THE EARTH
by Albert Falzon. 1972. 79 min. Preceded by AS WE PROCEED by Matt Webster. 2020. 23 min. Live music performance by Anand Wilder (of Yeasayer).
Monday
,
Sep 19
9:30 pm
Free
COASTAL KNOWLEDGE: ELEMENTAL UTILITY
A collection of short, contemporary documentaries examining the human condition through water, our attempts to clean up our mess and find ways to live harmoniously in the ever-changing environment.
Tuesday
,
Sep 20
6:30 pm
Free
PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE
by Paul Thomas Anderson. 2002. 95 min.
Tuesday
,
Sep 20
9:00 pm
Free
WINCHESTER TRILOGY
by Jeremy Blake.
Wednesday
,
Sep 21
6:30 pm
Free
PUZZLE OF A DOWNFALL CHILD
by Jerry Schatzberg. 1970. 105 min.‍ Live performance by Sleepy Doug Shaw.
Wednesday
,
Sep 21
9:00 pm
Free
NEW YORK SHORTS
Representing the many modes of narrative filmmaking, this lineup of new work from New York filmmakers moves from laughs to chills and arrives near the supernatural.
Thursday
,
Sep 22
6:30 pm
Free
GOD’S CREATURES
by Saela Davis & Anna Rose Holmer. 2022. 94 min. ‍Live bagpipes by Rockaway local John F. McManus.
Thursday
,
Sep 22
9:00 pm
Free
KEEP IT A SECRET
by Sean Duggan. 2021. 61 min.‍ Preceded by BERNADETTE by Duncan Campbell. 2008. 37 min.
Friday
,
Sep 23
6:30 pm
Free
COASTAL KNOWLEDGE: HARBOR OF MYTH
A map of whispered mythologies and intracoastal histories. These hybrid films shapeshift between fictional performances and documentary traditions, reawakening memories lost at sea. Invoking colonial phantoms, they examine notions of territory and possession. Live music performance by Bass Trio with Michael Isvara Montgomery, Ari Folman-Cohen & Ran Livneh.
Friday
,
Sep 23
9:30 pm
Free
WATERPROOF
A look into the polarizing attributes of Water as a conduit in the Black experience. Guest programmed by Melissa Lyde, co-presented by Alfreda's Cinema.
Saturday
,
Sep 24
7:00 pm
Free
MET MES
by Sam de Jong. 2022. 78 min. Preceded by MY ONLY IDOL IS REALITY by Martine Syms. 2007. 7 min.
Saturday
,
Sep 24
9:00 pm
Free
PEPPERMINTA
by Pipilotti Rist. 2009. 84 min. Preceded by INTUITION PROPOSITION by Lindsay Packer. 2022. 4 min. Live dance performance by Sigrid Lauren.
Sunday
,
Sep 25
6:30 pm
Free
KIAROSTAMI FOR KIDS
Five rarely seen shorts by the Iranian master, guest programmed by Jason Evans (This Long Century/Ecstatic Static). Live music performance by Lace Card.
Sunday
,
Sep 25
8:30 pm
Free
STAND CLEAR OF THE CLOSING DOORS
by Sam Fleischner. 2013. 107 min.

Our Sponsors

Blundstone
 National Endowment for the Arts
New York State Council on the Arts
Istic Illic Pictures
QUE™
hhi•helping hoof‎, inc
Be™•Brooklyn equine
New York City Department of Cultural Affairs
NYC Ferry
Rockaway Brewing Co.
Queens Borough President
MADRE MEzCAL
Far Rockaway Arverne Nonprofit Coalition
BjornQorn
 Rockaway Artists Alliance
 National Park Service
 Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy